Anzac Centenary: Long journey into Great War nightmare, as WA troops depart Fremantle for WWI

CARMELO AMALFI, PerthNowOctober 13, 2014 12:00AM

BOTTLES sealed with soldiers’ messages of love and hope floated in Fremantle harbour where the troop ships HMAT Ascanius and Medic waited.

As families, friends and wellwishers cheered and sang patriotic verse from the wharf, the ships prepared to steam out to sea for a rendezvous with the first Anzac convoy of Australian and New Zealand troops, which left Albany on November 1, 1914.

The majority of WA troops and a South Australian contingent were crowded into the Belfast-built liners Ascanius – the ship’s mascot was a concealed kangaroo joey — and Medic, carrying John Simpson Fitzpatrick, who boarded on October 31 after marching from the Blackboy Hill training camp to catch the train to Fremantle.

As the two ships sat tied to the wharf, there was impatience among many of the soldiers. Some sailors jumped overboard and swam to shore, fed up with the wait.

Camera IconTroops boarding the Ascanius.Picture: Supplied

News of the troop send-off at Fremantle was censored for days.

Details of the departure were not published in the Western Mail until November 20, after the military embargo was lifted on reporting such events.

Photographs by E.L. Mitchell of the embarkation on the morning of October 31 weren’t published until December 11.

In one image on the eve of departure, well-dressed men and women, many carrying umbrellas, crowd the Fremantle wharves where Ascanius and Medic are tied up.

One woman stands at the top of the gangway, talking to soldiers while others wave goodbye to loved ones.

Camera IconWWI troops march across the horseshoe bridge in Perth.Picture: Supplied

ASCANIUS (carrying 65 officers, 1728 men and 10 horses) and Medic (carrying 28 officers, 977 men and 270 horses) were the last two elements of the 12km-long convoy that came together on November 3, about 200km from the WA coast.

The two ships, escorted out of Gage Roads by the Japanese battle cruiser HIJMS Ibuki, were now part of a formidable fleet of 41 ships carrying about 30,000 soldiers, 2000 sailors and almost 8000 horses.

“Albany and Fremantle will (this month) commemorate the first convoy heading off on the longest journey to war in the history of the world,” local historian John Howson told The Sunday Times.

Mr Dowson, sorting through the page proofs of his new book Off to War: WWI 1914-1918, said each state contributed men and equipment loaded at different ports around the country.

The New Zealand expeditionary force of 10,000 men kept separate until it joined the Australians in Albany as a combined force.

Camera IconThe Albany Boys’ Blackboy Hill camp.Picture: Supplied

“The convoy began in NZ and in various Australian ports until finally all together off Fremantle,” Mr Dowson said.

“It was very much a stop-start affair as the New Zealand- ers were warned not send their troops without escort because the whereabouts of the German Pacific Squadron was not known.”

One soldier wrote: “On the morning of November 3, at 6am, everybody appeared to be on deck. It was generally supposed the fleet of vessels carrying the Australian forces would assemble at this time, but it was not until after 3pm that a most glorious and historic sight was witnessed, the Anzacs.”

Lined up in three rows, the flagship HMAT Orvieto front and centre, the ships sailed 700m apart, HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Sydney 6.5km on either beam and HMS Minotaur a few kilometres ahead.

The convoy headed north to Sri Lanka, the pace set by the slowest ship HMAT Southern at 10 knots or 18.5kmh.

Orvieto carried Maj-Gen. William T. Bridges and staff of the 1st Division, which was the first to reach Anzac Cove on April 25, 1915. Bridge died at Gallipoli on May 18.

Camera IconAscanius, one of the last ships in the 12km Anzac convoy.Picture: Supplied

It was not all smooth sailing for the first Australian and NZ contingent.

The Naval Historical Society of Australia notes HMAS Pioneer left the convoy after losing her fore-topmast and sustaining other damage in heavy seas.

Several men died of pneumonia during the voyage and sick and seriously injured horses were disposed of.

“One man died on the Euripides and was buried at sea this morning,” Lt-Col Frederick E. Forrest notes in his November 8 diary entry.

“Word also came through from the Athenic that two New Zealanders had died from fever during the night. This is a bad start.”

The next day, HMAS Sydney was called away to Cocos Islands where it destroyed the German raider SMS Emden.

At home, the Australian victory was proudly recorded on souvenir tea cups and saucers. It also lifted the soldiers’ spirits.

“The occasion (Emden’s sinking) was duly celebrated right through the fleet of transports, champagne being opened to do honour to the occasion, whilst officers and men gave vent to their feelings of patriotism by singing the National Anthem, ‘Rule Britannia’ and other patriotic songs,” wrote Lt-Col Forrest.

AS the ANZAC force sailed north, the war at home was already beginning.

Newspapers and council minutes from the time detail issues such as foreigners, religious resistance to conscription and call for war funds to help displaced Belgian children.

A fiery meeting of East Fremantle Football Club resulted in a decision to suspend the 1915 premiership in the face of a global hostilities.

“In its place, locals cheered on the Empire and celebrated those troops who left to fight for the home team,” wrote Deborah Gare and Madison Lloyd-Jones in When War Came to Fremantle 1899 to 1945.

“The South Fremantle Football Club proudly photographed its players who had enlisted for the war.”

Arts and music events embraced war themes such as theatre performances of The Deathless Army, Boys of the King, and Soldier’s Farewell.

Members of the lumpers’ union (wharfies) refused to work with Germans and Austrians and were criticised for going on strike during this period, particularly by mothers of soldiers who accused them of undermining the war effort by striking and holding back supplies needed overseas.